Greater New Orleans

LSU delays vote on tweaking grading system

The Louisiana State University Faculty Senate has delayed a vote on switching to a new student grading system to give the matter further study. The Advocate reports some faculty members complained about the lack of time to discuss the plan prior to Thursday's scheduled vote, while others pointed out that the change would cost the university money during a time of state budget cuts to colleges.

"It's a cultural change and a paradigm shift for us," said Andrea Houston, a professor of information systems and decision sciences. "We just don't know what the repercussions of this change will be."

"I just see this as fear of change," countered physics professor George Stanley, arguing in favor of the switch.

The proposed "plus-and-minus grading system" would award different scores for "plus and minus" letter grades in classes. Those supporting the switch argued it would allow for more accuracy and flexibility in assigning final grades for students.

On a 4.0 grade-point average scale, an "A-" would mean a 3.7 and a "B+" would score a 3.3 in the proposed change.

A standard "A'' or "B'' grade would still correlate with a 4.0 or 3.0, respectively. Currently at LSU, a "B+" and a "B-" both result in a 3.0 score.

LSU Student Government is against the change, although no students spoke up Thursday.

Student leaders previously expressed concern that they believed more students would end up being punished with "minus" grades.

The grading system was proposed by LSU finance professor Don Chance, who said Thursday, "This system is not some excuse to lower grades."

"Some of the arguments against this have sort of baffled me because they seem pessimistic," Chance said.

He added that most students will benefit with grading bump-ups when they are very close.

Chance said he would not oppose the delay, once it was pointed out that LSU likely would not be able to complete the change until 2013.

"I'm all in favor of making informed decisions," he said.

The grading system proposal also took a hit Thursday when LSU Registrar Robert Doolos said the change would come with "significant costs" because of the extra hours that employees will have to work to reprogram all the grading and other associated systems. Doolos said he could not estimate yet how much it would cost.

On Wednesday, LSU Chancellor Michael Martin said he would support the change if it is approved by the Faculty Senate.

Martin said he did not expect many technical problems in making the change, but Doolos said he has not yet discussed the matter with the chancellor.

"We've got to decide the bottom line, because we have to decide if this is a priority cost," said education instructor Rebecca Owens.

"There hasn't been enough time to sift through this," said Dianne Taylor, an associate professor of education, before requesting delaying the vote.